Horses run loose on rural road

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When 17-year-old Mariah Conti of Georgetown saw a herd of horses running along Mayfield Road directly toward her family's SUV on Sunday morning, her first instinct was to grab her camera.

"It was really cool ... As you were just looking out your window, you just saw six beautiful horses running as fast as they can past you," she said. "It's something you only read about."

It started out as a normal family trip to see her grandparents in Bolton. But as the family was driving east along Mayfield Road, approaching Chinguacousy Road, they could see several cop cars up ahead and wondered what was going on.

"All of a sudden, there was this cop car speeding at us, going the same speed as the horses," she said. "They were going so fast just coming straight at us."

The Georgetown family's Jeep Compass SUV was the only car in the path of both the cop car and the horses, she said. The police car also swerved in front of their vehicle to act as another barrier, Conti speculates.

But she wasn't scared; she knew the horses would go around them anyway.

"It was such a beautiful thing to see," she said. "Even though it was a bad event, it was really, really cool and I'm glad I got to see it."

While Conti reveled in the moment, her mother, Laura Chapman, who was in the front passenger seat, didn't take it quite as lightly.

"As beautiful as it was, it was a little scary at the same time," said Chapman. She was worried about what the horses were going to do.

But it didn't stop her from having the same reaction as her daughter— she reached for her camera.

"But the lens cap was on," said Conti about her mom's blunder with a chuckle.

In the panic of trying to take in the whole situation, the moment was gone by the time she realized the cap was still on.

"I'm rather dysfunctional when it comes to the camera," said the Georgetown mom. "I'm obviously not the photographer of the family."

Caledon OPP and Peel Regional police responded to a call reporting approximately 15 horses on the loose at around 11 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Creditview Road was closed from approximately 11:20 a.m. until noon as the constables rounded up horses around the area.

By approximately 12:30 p.m. all of the horses were either accounted for or returned to their stables.

According to a comment posted on a news website by user Christine Coutts, the horses escaped from Northside Farm in Caledon, which is located on Creditview Road between Old School Road and King Street. Caledon OPP could not confirm the farm, nor could Northside Farms be reached for comment.